Couscous Stuffed Peppers

3 red bell peppers, halved, deseeded

½ cup dry couscous

1 t salt

¾ t olive oil

1 T lemon juice

¾ t curry powder

¾ t minced garlic

1 egg

1 lg stalk celery, chopped

2 green onions, sliced

¾ cup garbanzo beans

½ cup dried apricots, chopped

¾ cup cranberries

¾ cup walnuts, chopped

4 oz feta

 Instructions

 Prepare couscous according to the box instructions adding the salt (omit if couscous box instructs you to add salt), olive oil, lemon juice, curry powder and garlic when you add the dry couscous to the boiling water. 

In a large bowl, beat egg lightly.  Add all other ingredients and toss; then add couscous and mix.  Stuff peppers with couscous stuffing and bake 20 minutes or until peppers are soft.  Enjoy! 

Click this link for the original recipe http://www.sunsetproduce.com/recipe/vegetarian-couscous-stuffed-ancient-sweets

Protein is over-promoted as a way to stay lean.  Women need 46 grams of protein a day and men need 56 grams a day.  The Akins fad is over, yet the average person still eats twice this amount.  Before you decide that you are not an average person, consider that if you have cottage cheese for breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch and salmon for dinner you are at or over the mark.  If you are over-consuming protein, that means you are under-consuming at least one of the other important food groups (unless you are eating way too much of everything and gaining weight).  Over eating protein by under eating vegetables, fruits and grains is not a smart diet strategy, especially considering that in an effort to over eat protein, people often over eat meat.  Animal products don’t give you the same feeling of fullness calorie for calorie compared with beans, nuts and seeds and even the leanest cuts contain way more fat.  In addition, eating a meat heavy diet is high in saturated fat, hormones and toxins that lead to various chronic diseases.  Take a look at the list below showing common foods and the amount of protein they contain to guesstimate just how much protein you are over-eating on the average day.   

Egg ~ 6.3 grams  

Skinless chicken breast ~ 22g

Tuna, 6 oz can ~ 40 grams of protein

Boneless salmon filet ~ 22g

Hamburger patty, 4 oz ~ 28 grams protein

Steak, 6 oz ~ 42 grams

Most beans, ½ cup ~ 7-10 grams 

Nonfat milk, 1 cup ~ 8g

Cottage cheese, ½ cup ~ 15 grams

Yogurt, 1 cup ~ 8-12 grams

Soft cheeses (Mozzarella, Brie) ~ 6 grams per oz

Medium cheeses (Cheddar, Swiss) ~ 7 or 8 grams per oz

Hard cheeses (Parmesan) ~ 10 grams per oz

Peanut butter, 2 Tablespoons ~ 8 grams protein

Peanuts, ¼ cup ~ 9 grams

Almonds, ¼ cup ~ 8 grams

Keep in mind that all fruits and vegetables have some amount of protein along with many bread products. 

Balance your diet by reducing your meat consumption at dinner.  One strategy that is easy to remember is to institute a Meatless Monday.  If you are consuming too much protein and want to overhaul your dinner habits, a well designed dinner menu would be to have fish twice a week, skinless chicken or eggs one night a week and meatless/vegetarian dishes four nights a week.  Red meat should be consumed rarely, if ever and cheese should not be the theme of a dinner (cheese enchiladas, manicotti, etc.).  Having recipes on hand is going to make it easier to reduce animal product consumption; otherwise you are likely to fall back on old poultry habits.  Check out “What’s for Dinner” under Recipes for meatless, dinners featuring lean protein. 

The abilities of the human body amaze me.  Cirque de Soliel is the ultimate in fitness.  The flexibility, the balance, the control, the strength and the grace with which these people move is astonishing.  I have seen O, Mystere, Ovo and now Totem and each time I was as captivated as the last.  I don’t really go to be entertained or amused (although I am); I go to be inspired.  These shows are a celebration of the capabilities of the human form.  While I have no where near the ability of a Cirque athlete, I have been inspired to celebrate my flexibility with more stretching, celebrate core strength with more balance training and to test what my body is capable of.  I may never be a performer, but I can pose. 

 Instead of a general resolution like ‘getting in shape,’ find someone or something that inspires you and set a specific fitness goal like mastering a specific yoga pose, accomplish complete balance while sitting on a ball, make  pull-ups look easy or learn how to do a squat correctly (and gain enough strength to do it).  Inspiration can come from anywhere and will carry you a lot farther than resolve alone.

I’m doing more to reduce waste while promoting better health!  I ordered a Bento Box from Pottery Barn Kids to put in my daughter’s canvas lunch box.  The Bento Box has segregated cubicles to separate food with a self-sealing lid, eliminating the need for lunch bags that go to the landfill after one use.  Small tubberware is also an option, but it may be challenging to find small plastic containers that don’t contain BPA; a chemical that leaches into food.  The Bento Box is BPA free. 

The Bento Box may help parents to plan healthier lunches.  There are 5 wells for dairy, protein, grains, fruit and vegetables.  After filling the Bento, you can do a visual check to make sure you got it right.  Consistently seeing the food groups together teaches children how to choose balanced meals without even noticing it.  Contrary to popular belief, dessert is not part of a balanced lunch.  It is a bad habit to serve dessert with meals, or even after. Three pm, or whatever time a child gets home from school is a more appropriate time for treats.  These should be served after a health snack, not instead of a snack.  (I digress… over consumption of dessert will be a topic for a future blog; back to lunch…).  If you are thinking that a Bento is not really necessary because most of the food in your child’s school lunch comes individually wrapped, then you are probably serving a large helping of sugar, salt, hydrogenated oils and artificial colors.  Pre-packaged foods are generally the lowest quality foods even if they have health advertisements all over them.  I ask my daughter to help pack her lunch.  The Bento Box pictured is typical of what we pack for preschool (honeydew melon cubes, garbanzo beans, corn, whole wheat bagel and gouda cheese slices).  The other day she looked in the box before we left and noticed there where 2 wells with fruit and the vegetables were missing. It works!

Okay, I can’t help but make a few more comments on school lunch dessert.  Dessert is not a food group.  No child should open their lunchbox and say, ‘my parent’s forgot the candy.’  Asking your child to eat the dessert last is not a great lesson.  You are basically segregating all food into desirable and requirement, only there is no incentive to eat growing food first because they already have the dessert.  It also turns sugar into a bribe or reward.  Using food is a dysfunctional eating habit.  You are teaching life sessions, even when packing food and you don’t want to be sending the wrong messages in their lunchbox.

I am expecting the gym to be crowded beginning January 1^st and I am expecting that by mid Feb, the regulars and I will be able to park closer to the door again.  I strongly encourage you to make a gym commitment if you have stopped working out, but I would like to suggest that everyone make a different kind of health resolution this year; one that you are unlikely to abandon by mid-Feb.  The list below provides health changes that are easy to make and take virtually no effort. Be ambitious and choose two.  (If you need more information or advice on why these simple changes will improve your health, check Categories to the right.) 

Fail Proof Resolutions

Switch to organic milk

Never buy vegetable oil again, only buy canola oil

Only buy organic potatoes, peanut butter or apples

Buy glass tubberware and use your plastic stuff to store art supplies

Don’t microwave anything in plastic, move the food to a glass dish

Switch to a sunscreen with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, use everyday

Buy an electric toothbrush

Try a ‘green’ cleaning product (stop inhaling chemicals)

Easy Resolutions for a Healthy Planet

Stop buying paper napkins and start using cloth

Don’t throw water away.  Any partially drank glass of water should be poured into a house plant or flower bed, not down a drain.

Make a pile for paper used on one side.  Use the other side for lists, kid’s drawing paper, notes. 

Use a BPA free water bottle and stop buying bottled water

Take hangers back to the dry cleaner (reusing is better than recycling)

Any jewelry junkie can appreciate the precious stones inside a pomegranate.  The multifaceted seeds in deep ruby tones sparkle and are hard for anyone to resist.  Pomegranates are rich in antioxidants, and their health benefits are being studied in association with a number of ailments including reducing breast, prostate and lung cancer risk and development, alleviating arthritis and protecting arteries. 

The best way to open a pomegranate without ruining your shirt is to use a sharp knife to cut through the rind in a connecting ring, around the center.  Fill a large bowl with water and submerge the fruit.  Pull the fruit in half, and then break the halves into fourths underwater.  Gently pull the seeds out from the fruit.  The skin/rind will float and you can skim it off the top of the water and throw it into the compost.  The seeds sink.  Drain the water and spread the seeds onto a paper towel to dry. 

Pomegranates have a tart taste and make a good addition to salads.  We usually just eat the seeds rather than cooking with them.  Although, they do have additional uses…

As a general rule, we avoid food coloring in our house because it contains chemicals known to negatively affect cognitive and immune function.  To show my daughter how food can be colored without tar derivatives we used pomegranate juice we made by crushing seeds in a blender.  To make purple cupcakes, add a little pomegranate juice to any yellow cake batter.  Add a little juice to white cake batter or frosting to get pink.  Because the juice is so dark, it only takes a little and it doesn’t alter the flavor of the cake or the frosting.

Purchase at:  Amazon.com   and  CreateSpaceBooks

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Mommy Fabulous is a comprehensive prenatal nutrition and exercise guide that fitness trainer and nutritional counselor Danielle Federico, M.P.H. developed for her own pregnancy aimed to create an even better body after having a baby. 

The first half of Mommy Fabulous focuses on nutrition, exploring Danielle’s personal philosophy.  She goes beyond the typical books about prenatal nutrient needs, teaching women how to make food choices so they gain healthy weight rather than pack on body fat while pregnant.  Danielle’s unique style of eating teaches women how to have a positive relationship with food, which in-turn helps you protect your baby’s development and future health.  This all-natural approach to eating improves metabolism so that weight loss is much easier after delivery. 

Danielle engineered a workout plan that considers the abilities of the pregnant body, accounting for the weaknesses and the common discomforts in order to match them with activities that mitigate those effects and maximize your ability to emerge from pregnancy with a more toned, sculpted body.  From a physical rehabilitation standpoint, she views childbirth as an abdominal injury and incorporates exercises into the pregnancy program that accelerate postpartum recovery time.  Mommy Fabulous is a unique approach fusing Pilates, strength training, and core rehabilitation techniques for pregnancy. Exercise descriptions are followed by troubleshooting tips, safety recommendations, and beginner and advanced modifications, allowing the reader to customize their workouts.  Trimester modifications maximize safety and allow the program to evolve as abilities change during pregnancy. 

Mommy Fabulous continues to support the reader with a safe rehabilitation based fitness plan beginning twenty-four hours after delivery through the following six months.  Danielle’s postpartum plan teaches women how to incorporate recovery techniques into daily life with a newborn. Mommy Fabulous provides expert coaching balanced with personal antidotes, motivational tips, and functional advice.  Danielle followed her own advice and recovered from childbirth to her best body ever.  By six months postpartum you too, can be Mommy Fabulous!

 a fable about belly fat

If I remember correctly, the tortoise and the hare are in a race.  The hare sprints out of the gate and gets so far ahead he decides to take a break.  The tortoise is slow and consistent, keeping a steady pace through the race.  After a few sprints the hare falls asleep, the tortoise passes him and wins the race.  But who loses more belly fat?  If both animals used their same strategy at the gym, the hare would lose more belly fat.  Walking, jogging or running at a steady pace is less effective than doing speed walking or sprinting intervals.  If losing belly fat is your goal, the hare is the example to follow.  Focus on sprints and recovery, then take a nap.  Well rested people lose more as well!

-Only eat desserts where real fruit is the theme.  Pumpkin and apple pie is healthier, more satisfying and will fill you up (due to fiber) compared to chocolate, lemon meringue or pecan pie.

-Only eat what you bake yourself. 

-Have a baking party, or arrange with family members for each person to make a different holiday treat and then split the batches among the group.  That way you go home with variety not excess.

-Exercise first, enjoy treats later…not the other way around. 

-Only indulge in treats that are truly seasonal.  You can make fudge in February; there is no need to gorge on it now.  On the other hand, a gingerbread cookie would be a little unconventional in July. 

-Start a new tradition.  Everyone may be asking where your famous Nanaimo Bars are, but after they taste your much healthier whole wheat peanut butter cookies they will be wondering about that next year. 

These substitutions will make any recipe healthier

When Baking…

-         substitute all or half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat

-         use ¼ less or half the sugar the recipe calls for

-         if the recipe calls for 2 or more eggs, leave out a yolk

-         if you are making a dish with 6 or more eggs leave out 3 yolks

-         use canola oil instead of vegetable oil

-         substitute half the vegetable oil for flaxseed oil

-         add a little wheat germ, or flaxseed meal (1-2 Tbsp)

-         use low or non-fat milk

-         make a graham cracker crust instead of a pastry crust

For more ways to thrive during the holidays see Categories “Holiday Baking vs. Holiday Eating” and “Making Recipes Healthier”

Let me first say that I love Vibram shoes, please read my previous review post.  Then let me say that they are being widely misused by fans that will result in athletic people overusing and over-stressing their feet, ankles and knees to the point that they won’t last into old age (these are the people you’d expect to be active at 70, but may end up with exercise induced arthritis). To quote a fan:

“Five Fingers take my feet back to basics. I wasn’t born with shoes on my feet. From an evolutionary perspective, human beings existed for countless millenia hunting and gathering, running from prey, lifting and carrying loads — all without the latest brand of Nike’s. It stands to reason that our feet evolved over time to withstand the freedoms (both good and bad) that result from going barefoot everywhere.”

I counter: For countless millennia there wasn’t concrete, asphalt and steel construction.  Barefeet were fine for running through jungle clay, carrying loads over rocks, gathering berries while standing on dirt and hunting on pine-covered forest floors.  We don’t do any of that!   You can’t compare grocery shopping by walking through an asphalt parking lot and over porcelain tile floors to sprinting through a forest after a deer! Even as societies industrialized, only some surfaces were hard and the average life span wasn’t long enough to experience overuse joint injury.  Going barefoot is important for foot exercise, but let’s get it straight.  Going barefoot in a carpeted home (even hardwood floors have pads under them) is far different from doing plyometric jumping in Vibrams on a hard gym floor.  Running from prey didn’t occur on neighborhood sidewalks and neither should barefoot running.  Concrete is too hard, that’s why shoes evolved to incorporate padding.  Going barefoot, or in Vibrams, should only occur on soft surfaces, which will absorb some of the shock of the weight of your body landing.  Your joints and feet absorb all the shock when landing on hard surfaces.  Tennis shoes are engineered to absorb some of this shock.  Wearing shoes without a supportive sole (Vibrams) on hard surfaces is a recipe for plantar fascitis. 

Vibram fans also describe how animals run to illustrate how heel landing is incorrect and promote the overwearing of Vibram shoes.  Yes, heel- first running is poor form, but an animal gate is a poor comparison.  Animals have completely different anatomy…they don’t even have heels.  Anatomically speaking, an animal couldn’t land on their fifth claw, even if they were wearing traditional sneakers.  I am not sure what point these people are trying to make.   Snakes don’t get back pain…is there a lesson there?

I think anyone who ran track in high school or college will appreciate what I am saying.  Vibram shoes are like track shoes without the spikes.  We never wore our track shoes to the grocery store!   Heck, you wear sneakers to the track and put on your track shoes at the side of the track.  (If you are going to argue that no one would walk around in track shoes because they have spikes, make note that the spikes are removable and are often replaced, providing ample opportunity to walk around in a spikeless track shoe…but it never happens.)  Track shoes (and Vibrams) don’t provide enough stabilization for any activity with direction changes; note all track events are forward motions. 

Vibrams are like being barefoot.  The problem is that with an incredible grip on the bottom of your foot, people assume they can do anything in them, when in actuality they should only be doing activities that can be done BAREFOOT.      

Activities Vibrams are awesome for:

Sprinting on tracks, beaches, dirt

Sport trekking: uphill hiking on dirt or rocks, tidepooling

Water sports: rowing, swimming, snorkeling

Yoga

Martial arts (preformed on pads)

Around the house (carpet)

I don’t recomend wearing Vibrams or barefeet for:

Jumping (you really need to make sure your heel never makes contact)

Walks (good luck not heel landing while walking a dog)

Jogging (usually slow enough for heel landing)

Any activity with quick direction changes

Gym classes like Zumba or Kickboxing

Daily use outside the house (going to work, grocery shopping)

Healthy snack ideas are a common question and for good reason.  20-30 years ago we used to eat 3 large meals, today A LOT of people eat most of their daily calories as snacks so there is a much larger opportunity to get it wrong.  ‘Snack’ is becoming synonymous with little packages.  It is easy to make the wrong choices because these foods are prepared for us rather than us cooking them.  Many snack foods have misleading labels and health advertisements on them.  Importantly, many of us ‘don’t count’ snacks as an opportunity to add needed nutrients.  Our mentality is, “it’s only 100 calories per serving, so it doesn’t add much.”  This is the problem!  It has added nothing to your daily fiber (which most people eat way too little of), it has given you more sodium, preservatives, artificial colors, trans fat or artificial sweeteners and provided you with nothing you need.  These little packages increase appetite and cravings ultimately leading us to be undernourished for the amount of calories we ate that day.  Even meal replacement bars, protein powders or vitamin supplemented, packaged snacks are not “real” food.   There is no way around it…you can not eat the majority of your calories as packaged food, it’s just not healthy.

Nutritionists, including myself, believe that snacks are one of the most important reasons we, and our kids, are becoming a fatter and un-healthier society.  Kid’s strollers have snack trays and your grocery cart has a cup holder.  It is a bad habit to eat while on the go.  Food manufacturers are making it easier and easier to do it, but it is really like biting your nails.   Food should not be consumed  while you are distracted.

Snacks should be considered a mini-meal.  Adults and children, alike, should have 3 larger meals and 2 smaller ones during the day.  This is the healthiest strategy for maintaining a steady blood sugar level so that you don’t over-eat at any meal and you avoid developing cravings.  At my house we call snack time “10’s-ies” and at 3pm we have the afternoon “Tay-t-tay.” We all try to sit down.  Candy or dessert of any kind (doughnuts, cookies) is NOT a snack.  Would you serve an individual size bag of Teddy Grahams for dinner?  Okay, well then you shouldn’t serve it at your mini-meals either.  A good strategy for your mini-meals is to have 2 themes.  Is the theme fruit and grains?  If you are serving Cheeze-Its, then the theme is salt and crap.   

Here are some of my favorite snacks:

Sabra humus, Kashi TLC crackers and Gruyère cheese

Low-fat cottage cheese with green apple cubes

Sabra humus and red,yellow,orange bell pepper slices

Dried cherries and unsalted almonds

Pistachios and dried cranberries

Homemade guacamole or 5 Layer Dip (olives, guacamole, tomato, cheddar cheese, whole black or pinto beans) with Padrino’s No-Salt chips or Trader Joes brand Veggie and Flaxseed Tortilla Chips

Smoothies and plain air-popped popcorn (a whole grain)

Organic peanut butter with baby carrots, celery sticks or apple slices

There are some good pre-packaged snacks out there, but I would like you to consider changing the way you think about snacktime first.  Stay tuned for Dani approved On-The Go-Snacks.

A client recently told me that she didn’t want to do upper body weightlifting because if she built strong arm muscles and didn’t maintain it, it would turn to fat.   This is a common myth.  Please read “Can Muscle Turn to Fat?” under Categories on the right for an in-depth explanation of how it is impossible for muscle to turn to fat.  The arm flap phenomena, however, is a reality.  Let me explain the biology of why it occurs: 

Men and women naturally begin losing muscle mass in their 30’s.  Without weight training two things happen:  First, muscle cells atrophy.  As a result, your metabolism slows down.  As metabolism decreases, more fat is stored.  This effect is more noticeable in women because they tend to enter their 30’s with much less muscle than men.  The body has a few ‘fat pockets,’ one of which is on the backside of the arms.  Without weight training this fat pocket is more likely to fill and ends up flapping every time you lift your arm. 

To combat or prevent the dreaded arm flap, weight training is a must! Tight toned muscles take up much less space than flabby ones.  My favorite triceps (muscle on back of the arm) exercise is the triceps dip.  It is easily modified to make it easier or harder.

I just spent the last couple of days in Lake Tahoe,CA and gave everyone at the beach a laugh when I covered myself in SPF50, wore a sun hat and glasses, then parked myself under an umbrella with a health magazine.  I do hide in fear, but my fears are legitimate.  Skin cancer is, by far, the most common type of cancer.  The incidence of skin cancercontinues to increase as the rates for most other cancers are decreasing.  Only 25% of skin damage occurs before the age of 18, so there is a lot that can be done to protect yourself as an adult. 

I was able to prove that 4 to 5 levels of sun protection were necessary with my UV detection wrist band.  White when there is no exposure; it turns purple depending on the strength of the UV rays.  Even in the shade it was lavender!

Buying sunblock isn’t straight forward.  There are many options, not just in terms of brands, but ingredients as well.  Basic sun protection blocks UVB rays.  A “broad-spectrum” sunblock absorbs UVA ray so that they don’t reach your skin.  They contain multiple ingredients because none of them can absorb all types of rays and they work for about one hour after application. Avobenzone and oxybenzone are common ones. The best type of sun protection is one that contains zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.  These are the only two ingredients that are physical barriers that deflect the entire UV spectrum from your skin.  They are active for about three hours after application and are great for sensitive skin.  If you are old enough, you may hear the word zinc and recall florescent pink noses of the 80’s.  You won’t have to make that kind of a fashion statement today because transparent zinc is now available. 

Sunblock Reminders:

Sunblock should be applied 15 minutes before entering the water.  It must be reapplied every three hours if it contains zinc or titanium dioxide, every hour if it doesn’t.  Don’t forget your ears, lips, neck, top of your feet and the back of your hands.

Nearly every health magazine and nutritionist is writing articles touting the effects of what they are calling “super foods.”  But will these foods actually save the day?  Will these foods come into your life and help you lose weight, cure diseases, reduce your wrinkles, improve energy and sleep?  These foods sound like they have more magical powers than Harry Potters wand!  I have news for everyone:  If you eat more stuff that grows from the ground, and less stuff made in a factory, you too would experience fewer digestive issues, have more energy and your immune system would have enhanced functionality.  Isn’t that super!  It’s true that these featured foods contain higher levels of vitamins than others, but adding some “super” foods to an otherwise unhealthy diet will not result in the “super” benefits touted. 

Food Heroes:  Salmon, Berries, Plain Yogurt, Sweet Potatoes, Broccoli, Nuts, Quinoa, Spinach, Beans, Avocado, Eggs… there are more, but I think you get the idea.

Avoid Food Villains: Anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup, anything artificially colored,  anything containing Hydrogenated Oils…again, I could go on.

 The most challenging balance training is to hold a balance position; then maintain this position while one body part moves.  My balance position here is a Side Chamber.  I compound this move with a Side Kick.  The challenge is to keep my entire body in the same position despite the knee extending and bending.  As the knee extends, my center of gravity moves further from my midline and my stabilizing muscles have to adjust to maintain balance in the same position. Balance is not achieved by leaning my torso further in the opposite direction, which would keep the center of gravity in the same position (check out the blocks in the previous blog).  As my knee retracts my foot back, my stabilizing muscles have to adjust to the moving center of gravity again.  Balance is maintained by muscles that function to limit or stop movement of the spine and pelvis.  If your body is rocking all over, then you are not effectively balance training.  This move should be practiced on the ground first by holding the Side Chamber for 2 minutes.  Then add the side kick, working up to kicking for 2 minutes. Once mastered, you can either reduce the stability of the surface you are standing on, or reduce the surface area touching the ground.  I have done both here by standing on a BOSU upside down.  Ultimately you could perform Side Kicks on the BOSU for 2 minutes while your body stays in one position and BOSU rocking is kept to a minimum.